Some Tame Gazelle

Some Tame Gazelle 
by Barbara Pym
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“If only one could clear out one's mind and heart as ruthlessly as one did one's wardrobe.”

There is something delightfully practical about the spinsters who populate Barbara Pym novels, and yet they are undeniably sentimental as well. This was a good story about a pair of sisters and their lives in a small village. My only quibble about it was that the characters of the two weren't distinct enough and I had some trouble keeping track of which sister was doing what. 

There was an "official of one of the greatest libraries in England" who was a minor character and I loved how everyone expected him to be very high-minded and scholarly and his primary interests regarding the running of the library were heating and water-closets. The truth about life as a librarian comes out!

This is one of the titles from my Classics Club list and was one of my #10booksofsummer.

No Fond Return of Love

No Fond Return of Love 
by Barbara Pym
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Dulcie always found a public library a little upsetting, for one saw so many odd people there, and it must be supposed that a certain proportion came in because they had nowhere else to go. Others were less easy to classify and less worrying. Why, for instance, was a reasonably prosperous-looking middle-aged woman--the smartness of her clothes detracted from by the dowdy laced-up shoes that told of bad feet--so anxious to get hold of a pre-war Kelly's Directory of Somerset?" (p. 52)

I found Miss Dulcie Mainwaring a delightful character. Very proper and respectable on the outside, but with a sharp observational wit which she mostly keeps to herself.  This novel is about a group of people living in and around London (mostly in a suburb near Kensington) and the daily concerns and events of their world. At the start of the story many of them don't know one another, but through the book Pym shows how they are interconnected or brings them together in ways that seem inevitable and connections are made. There are lots of vicars, oceans of tea, and a charming sense of the absurdities of life.
This book counts as my British title for the European Reading Challenge. 

Hello Fall!

Today is the first day of Fall (it begins at 4:44pm EDT to be precise). So, it seems like a good day to report on how I did on my summer reading. I don't usually commit myself to lists of specific books to read in a given timeframe, but the Top Ten Tuesday meme inspired me.
Here is what happened with my summer reading list:

1. A Farewell to Arms by E. Hemingway
   It was my Classics Club spin book and I finished it on time. I gave it one star. I think I was generous.
2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
   I committed to reading this for the 18th Century English Literature event but I couldn't get through it. It was officially abandoned.
3. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
   Read this for Austen in August with Classics Club.
4. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
   Another Austen in August book -- I didn't get to this one. I did read some other Austen stuff though.
5. A Few Green Leaves by Barabara Pym
   I read it, I liked it (3 stars), but didn't have much to say about it so didn't write a review. Same deal with Excellent Women (4 stars).
6. Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
   Excellent start to a new series from the creator of the Parasol Protectorate.
7. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
   This remains on my to-be-read (TBR) list.
8. Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World by Janet E. Cameron
   This remains on my TBR list and I'm looking forward to it based on Lisa's review. 
9. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorthy Sayers
   I finished this one and am still working on my Sayers re-read project.
10. Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
    This one belongs to my husband, and is still in his to read pile so I am still waiting for my turn.

I did read a bunch of other books over the summer, but they weren't the ones that I thought I would read when I made the list. Planned reading lists are not my thing. My quilting friends tease me for being unable to follow a pattern without totally changing the design/technique/etc. This may be a related issue.

Top Ten Tuesday -- Best Books YTD

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic: the best books I've read so far in 2013.

The first 2 were 5 star reads. The rest were top 10 in no particular order.

1. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
2. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
3. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
4. Bitter Brew by William Knoedelseder
5. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
6. The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro
7. An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym
8. The Merry Heart by Robertson Davies (read, but didn't write up yet)
9. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
10. Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James

Review: An Unsuitable Attachment

An Unsuitable Attachment
by Barbara Pym

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a charming novel about a librarian in a London parish and the people who are her neighbors in that community. It was full of excellent quotes and funny observations about the world. I especially liked the observations about what a clergyman's wife "ought" to do and say and how Sophia was such a contrast to those ideas.

I had never heard of Barbara Pym until earlier this week when The Indextrious Reader brought her to my attention in a post about the Week of Pym event at My Porch  in honor of the 100th anniversary of Pym's birth.